Support Player Class: A Dying Breed and a Fading Necessity

by: Nick Krone

Have you ever noticed the arrow in the FedEx logo or the little beeping noise in the background of your favorite song? Little realizations like these can change the way we view thing for the rest of our lives. A few years ago, I came to a similar realization about video games and the way I play them.

[Xbot360]

I play support a lot also, get killed a lot too. :(

[JD_Shadow]

There's a sense of challenge being the "front line" and being the "support". In MMO's like ToR and WoW, the "front line" is usually known as the tanks, and they have a very important job: to keep the monsters (mobs) off of the others so they can do their jobs.

What you define as "support roles" in a game like World of Warcraft depends on what you think about the roles in general. In short, every "role" has a main function in some way. Tanks are needed to protect the rest of the party and keep the mobs busy while everyone else does their job. They don't have a lot of strength to put too much of a dent in a mob's HP (depends on the class you choose to tank with), but what you DO hit with will make the mob really hate you, and want to try to kill you even when he's got ten million fireballs going up his ass. Not to mention that, if played right, they can be a bitch to kill, dodging and blocking and weaving around hits, and having a TON of health and armor to take a big hit.

Then you have the healers who, while they can't take too many hits (though some use durable armor), they have an important role of their own: keeping everyone alive without losing resources to do so. Tanks can't keep up the fight forever without someone being dedicated to keeping them and everyone else alive. Without the healers, a fight won't last too long. Plus, if you piss off a healer, he doesn't exactly HAVE to heal you (I play as a Resto Shaman on WoW as my main toon, btw). It's an important role to those that play it and realize their importance.

Then there are the guys who do the actual damage (Damage Per Second, DPS). They have an important role of their own, because their job is to bring the mob down and end the fight. They do this in different ways (melee or nuking them with fireballs and shooting things), but it all has the same purpose: bring down a mob as quickly as possible. There can't be too many DPS going down (a few is okay) if you don't want issues. Without the damage guys, a fight will drag and eventually overwhelm everyone else (or, in the case of WoW, a boss will hit a Berserk timer and one shot everyone).

In all of these MMO cases, the support roles are more or less those that you aren't playing. This is why I enjoy co-op play a lot. You support each other, and everyone has a main role to play. You may not be able to throw a punch, but you might be able to use an AK like a boss. And it might take that big guy on the front line keeping the guy busy so you can pull out that spell or ranged weapon and one shot who the tank was having be distracted.

Can see where the guy is coming from, though I can't say that stereotypes exists everywhere.

Oh, and I have a tank of my own in WoW: a Goblin Warrior. Have you ever SEEN how small the Goblins are in that game? Picture a midget being able to keep Godzilla busy.

[WagFanger]

Unless you play Modern Warfail 3, and then Support is stupidly effective.

Enemy UAV spotted
Enemy UAV spotted
Enemy UAV spotted
Enemy UAV spotted
Enemy Recon Drone
Enemy Advanced UAV
Enemy Advanced UAV
*Stealth Bomber*
EMP
*Stealth Bomber*
EMP